I, Kyle Newell, started Newell Strength because I had an obsessing need to know everything possible about training and nutrition. This lead me to compete in multiple bodybuilding shows as you can read in the ‘About Kyle’ page and from there, it lead to many friends and acquaintances asking me to write them programs.

I actually started Newell Strength in 2007 while I was 2 years into my teaching career as an elementary physical education teacher. And truth be told, I was very close to starting a landscaping business instead but I went with my heart and wound up creating Champions Choice Personal Training, LLC.

Newell Strength started as a mobile service, in which I would drive around in my little Hyundai Elantra to clients homes and train them on their premises. This means that I often had to get very creative in my program design and I had to be able to change on the fly. Combine that with my unique experience of being a PE teacher for the little kids and it was the perfect combination for developing as a Coach.

From the Elantra, I then built the first phase of the PIT: a 200 square foot gym in my parents basement. As you can see from the pics, the walls were black and it had a brutal feel to it. Before I knew it, clients were asking if they could bring a friend over to experience what we had going on in the PIT and the business continued to expand. With the help of my brothers father in law, I expanded the PIT into other areas of the basement which meant we then had 600 square feet. At that time, I started with the semi-private coaching model and started training 4 clients at once, all on different plans designed by me.

Fast-forward to 2011 and I decided I was going to move into a facility after talking to an old friend at a wedding. He told me about Joe DeFranco’s up in Wyckoff, NJ and I knew instantly I was going to do it. I started making plans for the facility, found a spot in the industrial park nearby and I was off and running.

The current version was strictly for athletes and alpha males. Not that we had a bias, but it was important to have the right environment laid down from the get go. That first facility only had about 750 square feet of floor space, but we rocked it in there. Athletes were coming from all over the place as well as top level executives, business owners and former athletes.

Newell Strength quickly outgrew that first facility and we upgraded to an older building that had even more character and double the floor space at 1500 square feet. We had some legendary workouts there in the summer of 2012 with many college athletes home for the summer and many new fitness clients in the fold. At this point, we started allowing non-athlete females in the door and we explained that we required the proper mindset. Make no mistake, we have had females drive up and turn around before even setting foot in the facility due to intimidation, but I am proud to say now that female fitness clients are a thriving part of the membership (see testimonial page).

Unfortunately, we only made it in facility number two until October of 2012 when Hurricane Sandy literally ripped the roof off the building. However, we only closed for one day, the day of the Hurricane. Members continued to come and train during that difficult time, as Newell Strength remained a symbol for all things strength. It was at this time that I started looking at a larger unit to move into since we would have to move anyway. Interestingly, I had sent my letter of resignation in to the Bridgewater Raritan School District the Friday before Sandy, which meant I was going ‘all in’ with Newell Strength. I had wanted to move into a larger facility but conventional wisdom would have said to wait and be conservative now that I would no longer have my ‘day job’ of physical education teacher. But during a conversation with my father in law, he said “Go big or go home” and that was it, paper was signed the next day.

And that encompasses what Newell Strength is all about, fast and furious action with the right attitude. A little know fact about Newell Strength is that during the interim between facilities, we moved into the ‘ice box’ for a month as a temporary unit. There was a hole in the ceiling and we didn’t even lay the flooring down properly. It was damn near freezing in there, but clients continued to enroll and athletes poured in from their colleges, home on their winter breaks.

We now cap off our membership at 100 members due to the desire to maintain the highest-level training environment in the state, time demands. We are in the Newell Strength compound, 3,000 square feet with a field next door for our use. Newell Strength continues to draw in interest from around the country. The story is not done yet, but the book is being written. Now is your chance to get into the pages of Newell Strength history.